Heaven and Earth
by Julia456
Summary: The Cyberdragons are looking for one big score. Team Steel is looking to stop them. I sense conflicting goals here.
1. Part One: Shanghai

Note: This story is set between the Season Two episodes "Steel vs. Steel" and "Space Opera." Whenever possible I have stuck to the facts, but some fudging was unavoidable. (All historical details are accurate to the best of my knowledge.) The ship's name, later in the story,is my invention.

The first emperor of China is known variously as "Qin Shi Huang" (chin shir huang) and "Qin Shi Huangdi." I've used the first version for this story.

---

---  
_All warfare is based on deception.  
_  
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War  
---

---  


---  
SHANGHAI, CHINA  
---

Fog blanketed the harbor and turned the nighttime city into distant neon fireflies. It muffled the sound of buoys and passing ships, and made the passage of one small powerboat all but invisible. This was to everyone's advantage.

The boat pulled up the side of a vessel big enough to be a cruise ship. Its engine cut and it bobbed gently on its own waves. Its passenger glanced around out of habit, then stepped into the lift and rose to the main deck.

There she found her host waiting with his usual bodyguards. Their armor did not intimidate her. She was wearing her own.

Her host stepped forward. "Welcome," Chang said.

"I'm sure I am," Dragonelle said. She smiled.

---  
DEL ORO BAY, CALIFORNIA  
---

"We have a situation developing," Jefferson Smith told the two agents in front of him. They were seated at the table in one of N-Tek's briefing rooms. Both agents had been pulled from training exercises. Jeff ran N-Tek and he wanted the best for this operation. Max Steel and Kat Ryan were definitely among the best.

Field Agent MX-1, nicknamed Max Steel, was the alter-ego of Joshua McGrath. Josh had been accidentally dosed with experimental nanoprobes over a year ago. It had nearly killed him. Even now he was dependent on the agency's transphasic energy generator for survival: the energy was the only thing that could power the nanoprobes. The trade-off was a host of superhuman abilities and a chance to save the world every day. Being Max had changed Josh's life forever - and Jeff's as well; Josh was his adopted son.

Senior Field Agent Kat Ryan was Max's new partner. She had replaced Rachel Leeds when Rachel was promoted a few months earlier. Kat was an ace pilot and infamously hard to get along with. Her violations of N-Tek's dress code - electric blue hair and multiple earrings - were never mentioned. Her special abilities were limited to keeping up with Max. They had mostly stopped arguing.

The third member of "Team Steel" was Agent Dr. Roberto Martinez, Berto to his friends. He monitored the data from Max's nanoprobes and ran other support services. He was a world-class genius in several fields. He was one of Josh's best friends. He wasn't at the briefing because he was doing routine maintenance on the generator.

"Our people in Shanghai have alerted us to new activity from the Cyberdragon Triad," Jeff continued. He put up the triad's file on the room's central monitor screen.

"The Cyberdragons?" Max asked, slightly surprised. "Chang's still around?"

Jeff nodded. "The Seraph business took its toll - Ivan Vostok is a sore loser. But Chang somehow came out with his power base intact, even if his wallet is empty."

"Seraph," Kat said. She leaned back in her chair. "That was one of Rachel's ops, right?"

"Kat," Max said, warning. It had been one of _his _ops, too.

She winked and turned back to Jeff. He had been waiting for the skirmish to conclude. Now he picked up the briefing again. "We believe that Chang is about to pull a heist. Not his usual technology MO - something big. Something very big."

"How big?" Max asked.

Jeff put a new display on the monitor. "Three hundred and fifty square meters at its base. Give or take."

Both agents let out low whistles.

Max said, "He's going to need a bigger boat."

Kat said, "How do you steal a pyramid? Never mind _why_."

"It's not the pyramid Chang's after," Jeff answered. "It's all the stuff inside." He gestured towards the low mountain of earth on the screen. "This is the funeral complex of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. It's located a few miles northeast of the city of Xi'an. A big tourist attraction. Legend has it that the interior contains enough treasure to make the Egyptian pharaohs look like cheapskates."

"He _has_ to be desperate for cash if he's chasing fairy tales," Kat said. She was not impressed by a triad boss who would waste resources.

Jeff said, "Even if it isn't true, Chang thinks it is. That means _we_ can't afford not to."

Max drummed his fingers on the polished surface of the table. "Right. If it's true, Chang's a black-market billionaire. And if it isn't -"

"- he trashes some priceless Chinese history," Kat finished for him. Max threw her a dirty look. She returned it.

"Exactly." Jeff slid two identical information packets to his agents. "Go to Shanghai. Get inside the triad and stop Chang from pulling off this 'Heaven and Earth' project. And," he added as they started to rise, "be careful. There's a rumor that the Cyberdragons aren't working alone."

Max flashed an easy grin. "No problem, Dad."

---

There was a problem.

It was a predictable one. Max and Kat were partners. They were also competitors. In everything, including running ops. They were both bad at undercover work, but that didn't stop them.

"_I'm_ the senior agent," Kat said. She had her hands on her hips and a nonnegotiable glare on her face.

"Yeah, but _I_ have experience dealing with Chang," Max said. He was matching her posture and expression. The cockpit of the Behemoth was larger than some planes, and they were the only people in it, but it felt crowded.

Berto had come up from his monitoring station to intervene. "Uh - rock/paper/scissors?" he suggested now. It was less likely to end in bloodshed than other methods.

"Deal," Max said.

"Deal," Kat said.

Berto officiated by default. "Three, two, one - shoot."

Max came up scissors. So did Kat.

"Tie," Berto said. It didn't take a genius IQ to predict _that_ outcome. "Three, two, one - shoot."

Kat threw scissors again. This time, Max picked rock. "Ha!"

Kat scowled. "Two out of three."

They were flying over Hawai'i. They could still be playing when they got to China. Berto cut the game short. "Nope. Max wins."

"Ha," Max said again. "Thanks, bro."

Berto left the cockpit before Kat could hurt him.

Max folded his arms over his chest and looked smug. "Okay. Here's the plan."

To her credit, Kat listened to the entire plan. Then she pointed at him. "I am _not _dyeing my hair," she said.

Max said, "Oh yeah?"

---  
_GOLDEN DRAGON_, SHANGHAI HARBOR  
---

Dragonelle was pleased. Reports from Heaven and Earth were good. The project was ahead of schedule. Chances of a substantial payoff were high. Her Shanghai accommodations - aboard Chang's private cruise ship, the _Golden Dragon_ - were excellent. And Chang himself, head of the notorious Cyberdragon Triad, was in her debt.

It was even better because Dragonelle had been on the ship before. She had been sent there to steal the Seraph program. But she had been disguised as Sofia, an undercover N-Tek agent, the entire time. Chang had never known that she, Dragonelle, had been anything more than just John Dread's courier. Now he was happy to take her money in return for her participation in Heaven and Earth.

So she was very pleased. She didn't have to act like it.

"This wasn't part of the plan, Chang," she said sharply.

His bodyguards bristled but he only made a sour face; he disliked women who stood up to him. This was something Dragonelle was keenly aware of. "Plans change."

In more ways than he knew. Dragonelle rose and left the room. She said nothing. Chang let her go with a dismissive wave to his bodyguards. He was happy to get rid of her.

She walked unescorted to the main security control room and went inside. Dozens of monitors showed locations all over the ship: the decks, the casino, the passenger cabins (all empty), Chang's suite of rooms. There had been fewer cameras on her first visit - the botched Seraph job. Chang was now paranoid enough to spy on himself.

The Cyberdragon soldiers on duty swung around at her entrance. "Get out," she ordered in bad Chinese. They exchanged glances, then left their chairs and the room. Dragonelle took a seat in front of the monitor showing Chang.

"Arrogant fool," she muttered. It lacked venom. She was used to arrogant fools. She expected them. But Chang was pushing his luck by trying to line up buyers before there was anything to sell.

Seven minutes later, there was a soft chime on the audio feed. One of the bodyguards opened the door to Chang's suite and admitted two people.

A man and a woman, both young, both dressed in slick black business suits. They were nearly the same height as each other (and as Chang, Dragonelle noted). There the similarities ended. The young man was blond and athletic: an all-American football star. The young woman was dark-haired and built like a gymnast. Dragonelle didn't recognize the young woman.

It took her a moment to recognize the young man.

"Welcome," Chang said, all charm. "Please, make yourself comfortable before we begin our business tonight."

They both sat and accepted tea. The young man's attention was fixed on Chang. The young woman's eyes flicked around the room. Light glinted off of several small earrings as she turned her head. Dragonelle kept _her_ focus on all three of them.

And she listened carefully to what was said - and what was not - by Joshua McGrath, aka Max Steel, and his fellow N-Tek agent.

This was even better than she'd thought.

---

Kat thought the plan could be worse. She just wasn't sure how.

First, they were both lousy undercover agents: they weren't patient, subtle, or good actors. Second, Chang and Max had already met. Josh and Max were not that different; Max's voice was pitched slightly lower and his hair and eyes were different colors. It wouldn't fool anyone who was looking closely enough, and Chang would have them under a microscope.

Third, she'd had to dye her hair - blue bangs spoiled the high-class underworld shark image that they were going for.

She was not thrilled about the hair.

For those reasons she had decided to let Josh do the talking. She would sit silently and chime in when she felt like it, or when - not if - his plan imploded. Chang didn't like women to be anything other than decoration anyway.

"So," Chang said. He set down his teacup. "It is Mr. Holman and Ms. Hilts, correct? I understand that you are interested in one of my... business ventures."

"Our employer is," Josh said.

Chang smiled. "Your employer. A mysterious man. And careless with his money, it seems. Does he even know what he's investing in?"

"He has his sources." N-Tek snitches in Cyberdragon employ. "He'd like to get involved with the Heaven and Earth project now, before things become more -"

"-public," Kat finished. Josh nudged her foot sharply. She ran her fingers through her brown hair and smiled at both men.

"More public," Josh said, forcing a smile of his own.

Chang toyed with his cup. "This venture is in fact about to go public, as you put it. Getting in now will be expensive."

Josh pulled out a checkbook. "Our employer is _very_ interested."

"Convince me," Chang said. He motioned a Cyberdragon guard forward. "You'll forgive my caution. Other business partners have been untrustworthy regarding payment."

"Better safe than sorry," Josh agreed. He handed the check to the guard without hesitation. The payment problem had been N-Tek - Berto specifically - transferring three hundred and one million phantom dollars during the Seraph op. N-Tek would be stupid to complain about it now.

There was a two-minute wait for the guard to return. They sipped tea and feigned polite civility.

"Where are you staying in Shanghai?" Chang asked finally.

Josh opened his mouth but Kat got there first: "A hotel."

Chang's eyes flashed. The civility strained. "Which one?"

"A really nice one," Kat said. It could have sounded empty-headed. It didn't. It sounded mocking, which was what she had intended.

Josh kicked her foot again, but knew better than to say anything: she was a great agent but low on tact. Chang refused to be baited further. Kat had scored her point and saw no reason to go on. A tense silence fell.

Over the biolink, Berto said, "We're clear." The bogus account was more convincing this time, but still bogus. N-Tek didn't give money to gangsters.

Josh was relieved. He nodded almost imperceptibly at Kat.

The guard came back and said something in Chinese to Chang. It was probably the same thing that Berto had just said.

Chang stood and smiled broadly at Josh and Kat. "It was a pleasure doing business with you. I'll contact you later tonight with further information."

"Great," Josh said. Being friendly with scum like Chang was killing him. At least that part was nearly over.

"One more thing," Chang said as the agents stood. "Please, for your own safety, accept some of my _assistants_ as an escort back to your really nice hotel."


	2. Part One, continued

Note: Laura's brother was married in the Season One episode "Seraphim". Names and details are mine.

---  
BUND AREA, SHANGHAI  
---

The Cyberdragon assigned to tail Chang's visitors was a man named Hsaio. He was supposed to follow them and their official escort out of sight and out of armor. Hsaio was not happy about the assignment. He was good, but he could tell right away that the two visitors were going to be difficult to track. He was also scared of disappointing Chang.

Disappointing Chang led to bad results.

Hsaio followed the visitors and the escort from the docks into the city proper. They were in a sleek black limousine and he was on a motorcycle. The streets were crowded. Traffic was slow. Hsaio was able to stay close without raising suspicion. He hoped.

The limo eventually stopped at the Westin Shanghai, a hotel on the fringes of the Bund. If it was the visitors' actual hotel, Hsaio thought, they were stupid or reckless. He suspected they were neither.

Hsaio parked his bike a reasonable distance away. The two visitors climbed out and went inside. The limo left. Hsaio stayed.

Five minutes later the two visitors came out again. Hsaio was surprised. They just walked out into the street, into broad daylight. Very confident. He had expected them to leave through the back and lose him. That would have been bad, but explainable: a lack of manpower. Maybe the visitors didn't credit the Cyberdragons with the intelligence to post a tail. Or didn't they know the escort had been a ruse?

When they didn't get into a taxi, Hsaio left his bike and followed them on foot. It was easy to keep the tall, blond-haired man in sight, even in the tourist-heavy Bund district. They headed for Nanjing Donglu. They seemed to be walking around randomly, stopping and pointing at signs and buildings. Acting like tourists. Perhaps they were; perhaps the Westin Shanghai really _was_ their hotel. Hsaio doubted it.

He was hanging further back now. All the stopping made him easier to spot. The two Americans stopped in front of a store display window, but not to look at it. They were arguing. The woman was doing most of it. Hsaio had heard that she had been rude to Chang. That was craziness. He almost wanted to close the gap and tell her so...

Somebody jostled him and he swung his head around with a sharp retort. An accident. An apology. He turned back knowing what he'd see.

Chang's two visitors were gone.

---  
PUDONGNEW AREA, SHANGHAI  
---

"Good eye, bro," Josh said to Berto over the biolink. Berto had been the one ID their tail. Now Kat and Josh were back across the Huangpu River and in the shadow of the Jinmao Tower.

"Thanks. But it's actually _your_ eye."

Kat said, "Chang's losing it. Putting a tail on an escort? Who does that?"

"Someone with trust issues?" Josh suggested. He was okay being flippant now that they weren't trying to sell their image.

"And a major lack of resources. Even I know you need at least two people for a good tail," Berto said. Kat couldn't hear him so Josh repeated the comment.

"Your dad said Chang broke the bank trying to get rid of Vostok, right? Maybe he can't afford to keep all his guys on the payroll," Kat said to Josh.

They entered the Jinmao Tower's ground floor lobby. It was big, shiny, and very wealthy-looking.

"Yeah. Or all his guys are working on this 'project' and there's just a skeleton crew here in Shanghai." Josh was about to add more to his speculation when he felt someone watching him. Another Cyberdragon?

He tried to scan the lobby and look casual.

"It _is_ you," a man said behind them. He sounded angry and disgusted. Mostly angry. "I knew it. Josh McGrath."

Startled, Josh turned around, saying, "Sorry, do I - oh."

"Uh-oh," Berto added. He recognized the man too.

The man was not a Cyberdragon. He was a few years older than Josh, well-dressed and Chinese. His accent and modern glasses were Californian. His tone was scornful. "What are you doing here? Looking for my sister?"

Josh scrambled to find an answer. The last time he'd seen Daniel Chen, it had been at the man's wedding - the day after the end of the Seraph op. That had been before Josh had been dumped by Laura Chen. "Daniel. Uh, hi. No, I'm not interested in Laura -"

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "Obviously."

Kat narrowed her eyes too, but not at Josh.

"I mean, I'm not looking for her. I'm here on business. For my dad. You know, like last time." He was flailing.

Berto said, "Hermano, this is bad. Ditch him and get up to the room pronto. Otherwise your cover could be in serious jeopardy."

Josh agreed with everything Berto said. But he had no idea how to get out of the situation without somehow causing a big fight. It was a good thing he had a partner.

"In fact," Kat said to Daniel, "we're late for a meeting right now."

Daniel swung his attention to her, then back to Josh. "This is Rachel?" he asked Josh.

"_This_ is Kat. We're busy. Get lost." She turned and walked away. Josh did too. They left Daniel fuming in the middle of the lobby.

Josh exhaled in relief. "Thanks for the save."

Kat shrugged. "No prob. So who's Laura?"

"It doesn't matter," Josh said. That wasn't very nice to his ex, but it was true. "There's what, a billion people in China? We won't see Daniel again. Berto - did you call for room service yet?"

"Uh..." Berto said. He looked at the empty plates on the room service cart. He coughed. "I'll call them again."

---

The Jinmao Tower was eighty-eight floors high, and the Grand Hyatt hotel only started on the fifty-fourth. N-Tek was footing the bill for Team Steel's stay. That was a good thing. It was going to be large.

A lot of it was going to be from room service. The rest was coming from the room itself: large, corner, Bund view. The best. Berto needed the height and the location for technical reasons he hadn't explained to his teammates. That was okay. They didn't really want to know.

"Food's on the way," Berto said as Josh and Kat entered the room. He was at one of his laptops typing. Cords and wires were trailing everywhere: the usual sign that Berto was in residence. "There's still some mifan and youtiao left from breakfast, I think."

Josh eyed the leftover rice and fried breadsticks. "_Ganbei_," he muttered unenthusiastically. "Got any info for us?"

Kat picked up a breadstick and bit into it cautiously.

"Not much on Chang. It looks like the Cyberdragons have lost all their land-based assets - the office buildings, restaurants, things like that. The government keeps making offers they can't refuse."

"That's a change," Kat said. She chucked the breadstick into the trash. "Guess he's really down on his luck if he has to give in to the feds. What about his pyramid scheme?"

"Nothing on that at all." Berto shrugged. "Slow day for the informants. I do have a lot of stuff on the actual tomb."

Kat and Josh exchanged an amused glance that read, _Lecture coming_. They found comfortable spots on the furniture and settled in for it.

"There's only one historical account of Qin Shi Huang's tomb, and it hasn't been excavated yet, so nearly everything is speculation. The story goes that he was buried in a miniature replica of his kingdom - underground. A kind of topographic map, with little mountains, hills, even rivers and lakes. The ceiling is supposed to be covered in jewels to look like constellations of stars. He's buried in several gold sarcophagi, probably wearing a suit of jade. The tomb holds everything an emperor could need. We're talking a serious treasure trove here. And it becomes _more_ valuable because it's intact. _No one_ has been in this tomb since it was sealed in 210 BC."

Josh and Kat looked impressed, but slightly blank about the timeline.

"Over two thousand years ago," Berto added.

"One big score," Kat said. This was the important part to her, not dates. "That'd solve the cash-flow problem."

Josh agreed and zeroed in on another detail: "Rivers and lakes? In a tomb? For two thousand years?"

"Five hundred tons of liquid mercury," Berto said. "They know that's under there. The soil is contaminated beyond belief."

"So why haven't the archaeologists excavated?" Kat asked.

Berto pushed his laptop around so they could see the screen. "They found something else first."

Josh and Kat looked at the picture: ranks and ranks of clay statues. Soldiers in old-fashioned armor. There were so many that the wide-angle lens on the camera couldn't fit them all in.

Josh said, "The terracotta army? This belongs to Qin-what's-his-face?"

Kat said, "Rich dude."

"Unbelievably," Berto said. "The terracotta army is over 7,000 soldiers and horses, in three underground vaults. It's a mile away from the tomb. In between is an entire fake city with houses, walls, statues of servants, you name it. If the historical account of the tomb is wrong, it's going to be because they _under_estimated the loot."

Josh and Kat exchanged glances again. "_Ganbei_," she said.

---  
_GOLDEN DRAGON_, SHANGHAI HARBOR  
---

Nearly all of the Cyberdragons spoke English. It was an elite triad and all of its members were expected to be well-educated. To exclude Dragonelle, whose Chinese was demonstrably bad, Chang had ordered them to conduct their business in Chinese.

Dragonelle stood on the lower level of the shipboard casino, next to a row of colorful slot machines. Watching Chang. He was talking on a cell phone and giving directions to his crew. He looked confident.

The Cyberdragon who'd lost the tail followed behind him. The soldier was ashen and in obvious pain from his newly bandaged hand. It looked like he had lost a finger.

Dragonelle didn't like that. It was stupid to wound your soldiers. The man would need to hold a weapon soon, and now he had only one good hand. It was also stupid because it showed how desperate Chang really was. He knew he couldn't keep his soldiers without using fear.

John Dread had never needed to use physical punishment to discipline his operatives. She had failed him spectacularly, more than once. Her only consequence had been his quiet disappointment. That had been nearly unendurable.

Chang ended the call and turned his attention to Dragonelle. "_Ni hao_," he said. "Checking on me? Everything is going well, so don't worry. By midnight tomorrow, we'll be billionaires."

"You're an idiot," Dragonelle said calmly.

The wounded soldier blanched further. He hugged his hand close to his body.

Chang scowled. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that."

"You might want to open your ears for this one," she said. "Those Americans that just bought their way in - we've both met one of them before."

His scowl darkened. The soldier's eyes darted back and forth between them. "I would have recognized -" Chang started.

"- their names? 'Holman and Hilts'? Obvious aliases. Wake up, Chang." Dragonelle crossed her arms over her chest. "You just played host to Max Steel."

---  
HONGQIAO AIRPORT, SHANGHAI  
---

Daniel Chen called his wife before he left Shanghai. He was still angry. He tried not to let her hear it. They had only been married for a few months and it was a traditional arranged marriage. He liked Lidan so far. He didn't want to leave her. Or China.

"How did the meeting go?" Lidan asked.

"I took Professor Huang to dinner at the Grand Hyatt." It had been a blow to Daniel's wallet, but he needed to develop _guanxi_. That meant "connections" literally; "friends in high places" to his jaded American eye. Guanxi was how you got things done. He needed good connections to advance. Right now the university liked his bilingualism more than his engineering degree.

"That's good. Are you taking a plane?"

Daniel rubbed his eyes under his glasses. "Unfortunately, yes. I'll be home sometime after midnight." If he lived. Safety records were more frightening here than in America.

"I won't be home. I'm working late."

"Again? How late?"

Lidan told him and he felt a flash of anger towards her boss. "That's got to be against the law. Won't you get in trouble with the security guards?"

"No - I have 'special permission'," she said, with that mischeivious tone he was already growing fond of. "I'll see you tomorrow, Daniel."

"Tomorrow, Lidan," he agreed, and hung up. Then he joined the crowd waiting for the flight home to Xi'an.

---  
GRAND HYATT SHANGHAI  
---

It was exactly four hours after their initial meeting with Chang when the cell phone rang twice. Dinner had come and gone. Now Berto was on his computer, Josh was playing a video game and Kat was watching _The Sand Pebbles_.

"Wait!" Berto said as the phone shrilled. He typed a command. "Recording it. Y'know, just in case."

Josh approved. He answered the phone with his alias: "Holman."

"Mr. _Holman_. Please meet us at Hongqiao Airport in two hours." The voice was Chang's. It sounded cold. Josh blamed Kat's sarcasm for that.

"Of course," he said. He gave his teammates a thumbs-up. "What about travel restrictions?"

"Not a problem, I assure you."

Click. End of call.

Josh put down the phone. "Looks like we're in," he told Kat.

"I dyed my hair for one meeting? Your plan sucks, McGrath."

"Just wait," he said. "It's about to get better."


	3. Part Two: Xi'an

---

---  
_All warfare is based on deception.  
_  
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War  
---

---

---  
HONGQIAO AIRPORT, SHANGHAI  
---

Light from the airport reflected on the smooth white fuselage of the private airplane. Cyberdragons escorted the American to the boarding stairs. They climbed up after. Airport personnel took the stairs away and the pilot radioed for clearance to take off.

Inside, the American settled into a seat across the aisle from Chang. The triad boss raised an eyebrow. "Just one of you?"

"That's right. Is it going to be a problem?"

Chang waited a moment, thinking something over. Then he smiled. "Perhaps. But then again - I think not."

"Good," Kat said. She folded her arms over her chest and leaned back into the seat.

The pilot said something in Chinese over the intercom. The cockpit door was closed and no one in the cabin could see the front of the plane. "We're taking off," Chang translated. His smile widened. Kat looked away. Ignoring him. Ignoring the Cyberdragons around her.

In the cockpit, in the copilot's seat, Dragonelle smiled too. They took off. The ground fell away. The neon riot of nighttime Shanghai filled the windows as the plane banked and headed west. Towards the completion of the Heaven and Earth project. Towards revenge.

Towards Xi'an.

---  
XI'AN, CHINA  
---

The flight had been a two-hour test of nerves and patience. Daniel loved China. He loved being Chinese. He felt a deep connection with the land of his ancestors. He liked the noise, the crowds, the inescapable community of living there. Unlike his little sister Laura, he could never see America again and die happy. But he he had been spoiled on safe, efficient, clean transportation, and he did miss that.

It didn't matter now, he told himself. He was in Xi'an. He was home.

Daniel got into a taxi at the airport. He mentally calculated the fare and tried not to wince. Dinner at the Grand Hyatt and a plane ticket on the return trip. Before that the train to Shanghai and a three-day hotel stay while he translated for visiting British engineers. It was more yuan than Daniel wanted to part with.

Now he was spending even more on a cab. But he needed to speak with Lidan tonight, for his own peace of mind. He needed advice. He was still angry about running into McGrath. He couldn't objectively decide if he should tell Laura about it or not.

Mostly, he realized, he just needed to see his wife.

"Bingma Yong," he told the driver.

"That's thirty kilometers away. That's going to cost you," the driver said in Chinese. "And this late, it's closed."

"I know," Daniel said shortly.

The driver shrugged and headed out of the city. Northeast. Towards Lidan's workplace, the Bingma Yong: The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, where she was working late and alone.

---  
30 KM NORTHEAST OF XI'AN  
---

"The museum's cleared out and the pyramid's deserted, bro," Max said. He was in stealth mode. He was halfway up the eastern side of Qin Shi Huang's pyramid and using his nano-enhanced vision to see the Terracotta Army Museum. It was getting close to midnight. It looked like all the staff at both sites had gone home. "All quiet on the Xi'an front."

"Everything's quiet here, too," Berto said over the biolink. He was still in Shanghai.

"Have you heard from Kat?" Max started to descend the earth pyramid. A stone stairway had been built to aid climbers. He disregarded it and made his own path through the trees and shrubs.

"No. Patience, hermano. It's only been a couple of hours. And she's undercover, remember?"

Max remembered. It was his plan: he'd stake out the site while Kat stayed close to Chang. He knew Kat would be okay. But she was still his partner and he felt like maybe he should be watching her back a little more. "Yeah, okay. This 24/7 surveillance is gonna get old fast, though. Heard from Chang?"

"No, but..." He paused. Checking his facts. "Shanghai police just seized his cruise ship."

"Ouch."

"He's way past the point of no return. Literally."

"Which only makes him more dangerous." Max had arrived at the pyramid via a Hawk jet. The two-seater N-Tek spy plane was waiting for him in the middle of the flat farmland that surrounded the funeral complex. The Hawk was also in stealth mode, but Max could see it. He slid back the canopy. "Now he's got nothing to lose."

"And a lot to gain," Berto agreed.

---  
TERRACOTTA ARMY MUSEUM  
---

Daniel got out of the cab and paid the driver. The museum was dark and empty. Closed, like the driver had said. The taxi left.

During the day, the museum was a tourist maze. Souvenir stalls, food vendors, guided tours, buses, shouts in a dozen languages. Now it was just buildings. There was the main exhibition hall and three large enclosures that covered the pits where they'd found the clay soldiers. Vault One was the longest - two American football fields - and the most famous. Lidan was working in Vault One.

Daniel walked to the back of Vault One, to the entrances the tourists never saw. There was a large truck, like a semi, idling near the door he was planning to enter. He stopped, confused. Were they moving some of the statues? It happened once in a while. Several had been loaned to a museum in Taiwan a few years ago. But Lidan would have mentioned that, wouldn't she? It was always a big deal - the government hated to let the statues go anywhere.

He looked closer. There was no one in sight. No archaeologists, no security guards, no museum employees - no driver in the truck.

Daniel got an uneasy feeling in his stomach.

Then it changed to panic.

---

"Are you the only one here?" Chang demanded in English.

The woman nodded. She was young and pretty even with her hair pulled into a businesslike bun. She was wearing a white lab coat over her clothes. The ID badge clipped to the coat said her name was Dr. Wu Lidan. "_Shide_ - yes - I am working late," she stammered.

"Unlucky," Chang said. He gestured at the two Cyberdragons holding her. "Tie her hands behind her back. Put Dr. Lidan Wu with her new friend."

They used duct tape to bind Lidan's wrists together. She was scared. She didn't protest or struggle.

"Now you'll have some company, whoever you are," Chang said to Kat. She had her own escort and her own duct tape handcuffs. Kat hadn't struggled either, but it hadn't been because she was afraid.

"Great. Maybe _she'll_ have something intelligent to say," Kat said. It hurt to talk: the cut on her lower lip was very fresh. After they'd landed in Xi'an, Chang had revealed that he knew she worked for N-Tek. But that was all he knew. When she'd refused to tell him anything else, the jerk had hit her.

It was going to be a spectacular bruise. Kat didn't care. She would get even.

Chang scowled. "You should be grateful I want an American hostage, _Hilts_, since that's the only reason you're still alive."

"Yeah, I'm oozing gratitude."

The Cyberdragons marched Kat and Lidan out of the scientists' offices and onto the walkway over the Vault One pit.

---

Max was even worse at surveillance than at undercover work. He was sitting in the Hawk with his feet up on the instrument panel. He was bored. There was nothing to see and less to do.

But he was thinking. "Berto," he said abruptly. "What was the original intell on this job? What _exactly _did the informant say?"

In Shanghai, Berto was playing computer chess. He had to stop and dig through the mission files. "Um... _The Cyberdragon Triad is planning a robbery in Xi'an. Something called Heaven and Earth. It's about Qin Shi Huang's burial. It's going to be big._ In later communications they added more details. All pretty vague, though."

"Did they ever say the tomb specifically? Like, the pyramid itself?"

"You know what?" Berto answered, getting excited. "No. Just that it was going to be in the funeral complex."

Max sat up and smacked his palm against the instrument panel. He wanted to smack himself on the forehead. "_We're in the wrong place!_ The pyramid isn't the target - it's the terracotta soldiers that Chang's after!"

He fired up Hawk's engines and aimed the jet at the museum. It was less than a mile away - an eyeblink by Hawk standards.

"Of course!" Berto said. "It makes perfect sense. Chang doesn't have the money to excavate the tomb _or _haul away all the treasure. The Chinese _government_ can't even afford it, or they would've done it already. So instead -"

"He'll just take all the stuff they've already dug up. Bro, we're idiots."

"No argument here. I'm accessing the museum blueprints."

Max sat Hawk down in front of one of the enormous buildings. He jumped out and looked around. The signs he could see were in Chinese. All the buildings had white walls and green tile roofs. Which building had what inside? The museum complex was dark - just security lighting.

"Where am I?" he asked Berto in a low voice.

"You're looking at Vault One. It's the biggest of the three structures housing the terracotta soldiers."

Max switched to infrared vision and saw two bright, hot shapes near the long side wall of Vault One. "I wonder who our mystery guests are," he said. He circled around to approach the unknown people from a better angle.

"Where are the Cyberdragons? Shouldn't they be looting?"

"Good question." Max was close enough now. He switched back to normal vision. "Unbelievable," he said under his breath.

The unknowns were a Cyberdragon soldier... and Daniel Chen.

Daniel was sitting on the ground. Hands on his head. The soldier was standing over him with an energy rifle held in one hand. Daniel's glasses had been knocked off at some point. He looked miserable.

Berto asked, "What are you going to do?"

Max thought briefly. Mostly, he was glad Berto didn't say something about running into Daniel again. He shrugged. "Go over and say hello, I guess."

He left his cover and came up behind the two men. The Cyberdragon heard him and spun around, bringing up the rifle. One-handed. He was slow and clumsy. Max easily grabbed the gun by its barrel and twisted it away. Then he punched the Cyberdragon across the jaw.

The soldier went down. Max squeezed the rifle in both hands. It crumpled. It was ruined. He tossed it away.

"_Xiexie_," Daniel said as Max helped him stand. That meant _Thank you_. "_Tai xiexie le_!" _Thank you very much_!

He thanked Max but wanted to slug Josh. That was the weirdest part about a secret identity. Max was more or less used to it. "No problem," he said.

Daniel was surprised. "American?" He squinted. Max guessed he couldn't see very well without the glasses. Good for the secret ID. Bad for any fighting. "You're American?"

"Last time I checked," Max said.

The Cyberdragon groaned and struggled to sit up. Max stopped talking and got ready to knock him back down.

"Please," the soldier said in heavily accented English. He raised his hands in surrender. "Wait!"


	4. Part Two, continued

---  
TERRACOTTA ARMY MUSEUM  
---

Kat was tired of waiting for Max to get there. She was tired of China and the Cyberdragons and her teammate's lousy plan. She hated it when she had to wait for backup. She didn't need to be rescued. She could save herself.

She looked around. There were two soldiers guarding her and the Chinese archaeologist - Lidan Wu. They were standing a few feet back from the women. Bored and talking to each other in low murmurs. Three more Cyberdragons were patrolling the long walkway that ringed the pit. The other four were busy crating up statues. Chang was supervising them. Everybody was distracted. And it was dark. They were using portable sodium lights down in the pit; the light didn't go far.

It would be pretty easy to escape. Her hands were tied but her feet were free. And ten Cyberdragons versus one N-Tek agent wasn't so bad. Kat could get out of there, no problem.

But it would mean blowing the mission. And she'd have to get Lidan out too. That might be impossible: Lidan was watching the statues with laser intensity. She seemed more worried about the terracotta warriors than herself. Not so good for her Great Escape.

One of the soldiers loading a statue stumbled. The fragile terracotta statue nearly banged into the crate. Chang shouted. Lidan cried out. Kat guessed at translations: _Be careful, you idiots_! and _That's a priceless artifact_!

The Cyberdragons regrouped and got the statue into the crate undamaged. They rolled their shoulders and moved to the next clay figure in the row.

Kat inched closer to Lidan. "Hey," she hissed.

Lidan looked at her, startled.

Kat pointed at her chest with her bound hands. "Kat. _Ni hai shuo yingya ma_?" _Do you speak English_? That and _Wo de zhongwen hen cha_, "my Chinese is terrible", was all the Chinese she knew.

"_Shide_," Lidan whispered. "Yes. A little."

Kat leaned in even closer. "I'm a spy. My friends are coming. When I say to run, you run. Do you understand?"

Lidan nodded. "_Shide_," she whispered again. She glanced back at the soldiers on statue duty.

Kat felt a little better.

Chang had climbed out of the pit. He sauntered over. The guards snapped to attention. Chang looked very self-satisfied. Gloating. Kat wanted to wipe the smirk off his face with her foot.

"Take a good look," he said. "It's a glorious sight, isn't it? And you're among the last to enjoy the entire army. Soon the eighth wonder of the world will be missing a few key pieces."

"Just looks like a bunch of clay to me." What it looked like was a bunch of blunt objects. Kat kept that thought in mind while she bit down on her impatience.

---

The Cyberdragon soldier pulled off his helmet. Awkwardly. With one hand.

"That's the guy who followed you in Shanghai!" Berto said.

"My name is Hsaio," the soldier said. "N-Tek?"

"Yeah," Max said quickly. He hoped Hsaio wouldn't say anything else about N-Tek in front of Daniel.

Hsaio was visibly relieved. "_Xiexie_. Chang cannot do this. It is wrong to steal from your country this way. Now you are here - you must stop him."

"You're the informant," Max said. He was surprised.

"_Shide_," Hsaio said.

Daniel looked bewildered. Max explained to him, "I'm a counterterrorist spy. Mostly." To Hsaio he said, "How many bad guys are in there?"

"Nine," Hsaio said. "And Chang. There are two women hostages. One I followed in Shanghai. The other is a doctor."

"My wife Lidan," Daniel said grimly.

Max laid out the new facts in his mind. "Okay. Hsaio, get out of here. We'll get you out of China ASAP. Daniel, you stay. You can help me."

"You better believe it," Daniel said.

Hsaio gave a quick bow. "_Zaijian_," he said. "Goodbye." He left.

Daniel and Max looked at the big Vault One building. "What now?" Daniel asked.

Max cracked his knuckles. "Now we save the day. C'mon."

They ran around to the opposite side of the building and stopped next to a door. "How, exactly, are we going to save the day?" Daniel asked. He was a little out of breath and squinting in the dark.

Max said, "I'll go in, fight Chang's goons, and you'll get your wife and get to safety."

Daniel looked incredulous. "That's it?"

"Not much of a plan," Berto said.

Max frowned at both of them, even though Berto couldn't see it. "Hey, I'm improvising, okay? And my partner is in there. She'll help."

Daniel shook his head. "You're the expert. Just - " He paused, struggling for words. Finally, he said, "Just make sure Lidan isn't hurt."

Max clapped him on the back. Daniel in Shanghai was a jerk. _This_ Daniel was an all right guy. Max liked him more now than he had the first time he'd met him, at the man's own wedding. He still wasn't sure if Daniel could pull off his end of the plan: it was a lot different from crunching numbers or designing buildings. "Let's go."

Max eased the door open and they quickly ducked inside. The interior of the building looked like a giant aircraft hangar. In the middle was the giant excavated pit: long columns of statues divided by long walls of solid earth. Max immediately noticed the three lookouts on the broad ground-level walkway. He'd have to deal with them first.

All of the overhead lights were out; Chang was using portable sodium lights to illuminate his operation. It gave the pit of statues an eerie orange-and-black light. On the edge of the shadows, on the opposite walkway, Max saw Kat and another woman - Lidan. Max pointed out the women to Daniel.

"Light switch?" Max murmured to Berto.

Berto told him where it was. "Duck," Max whispered to Daniel. "When the lights come on, stay low but move fast."

Daniel nodded. "Got it." He looked determined.

Once he was away from Daniel, Max went into stealth mode. He took down two of the lookouts and made sure they wouldn't get up anytime soon. Then he hit the light switch. Instantly, it was high noon.

The Cyberdragons were taken completely by surprise. They started shouting and pointing their weapons around. Kat had been expecting something to happen. She pushed Lidan flat and kicked one of their guards in the stomach, then in the face. He staggered back, dazed. The other guard fumbled with his gun. Kat dropped to the cement floor and brought her legs up through her bound wrists so that her hands were in front of her.

Max was running down the walkway towards Chang.

Daniel rounded the corner, trying to stay low.

Chang was barking orders in Chinese. The Cyberdragons stopped panicking and their response started looking more organized.

The guard fumbling with his rifle got it free and working.

"Run!" Kat told Lidan.

Lidan scrambled up and ran.

---

In Vault Two, the four Cyberdragons tasked to Dragonelle paused and listened to the orders coming over the comm gear inside their helmets.

Dragonelle was dressed like a museum scientist, in a white lab coat. Her ID badge and security pass said her name Dr. Ma Ling-Yee. She wasn't wearing comm gear, but Dragonelle could hear the orders too.

Orders from Chang. She didn't like what she heard. Max Steel again, as predicted. But Chang hadn't listened to her advice. He'd baited Steel instead. Now his screw-up could mean her failure. That wasn't acceptable at all.

One of her soldiers said, "We have been ordered to assist -"

"I know what he said," Dragonelle snapped in perfect Chinese: one of several languages she spoke fluently. One of many things Chang didn't know about. Another was how this drama would end. "If you want to live, you'll listen to what _I_ say. Finish loading the statues. _Right now_."

They hesitated.

She shouted, "Get to work!"

They did.

"Let that fool get what he deserves," she said in English.

---

Max dropped the third lookout and jumped down into the pit. "Game's over, Chang," he called out. The remaining four soldiers rushed him. "Going turbo!"

Daniel nearly collided with Lidan. He embraced her, then tore off the duct tape. He said quickly, "Call the police!" in Chinese. She hurried to the nearest phone; the Cyberdragons had taken her cell phone. Daniel turned back toward the fight.

Kat grabbed the first guard's gun and used it as a club to knock the rifle away from the second guard.

In turbo mode, Max was much faster and stronger. The four Cyberdragons were skilled fighters and well-armed. One punch from Max and each of them were down. "Okay - where were we?" he said, facing Chang.

Now Chang was undefended. He drew a handgun and backed away. He clambered up one of the packed-dirt walls that divided the lines of statues. He was desperate. "Max Steel again! So I wasn't misinformed. You won't cheat me this time!"

Max jumped onto the same wall and slowly walked toward him, keeping a good distance. If Chang started shooting, he could hit Daniel, Lidan, or Kat. Or he could destroy any of the statues: also a horrible loss. "Your definition of 'cheating' is a little off."

The first guard went down with an elbow to the jaw. Kat didn't need the rifle now that it was a one-on-one fight. She saw someone who did and tossed it their way.

On a security phone, Lidan blurted, "_Jiuming a! Zheshi jinji qingkuang!_" _Help! It's an emergency!_ She gave her location. She mentioned the Cyberdragons. Rushing to finish the call and get back to her husband, she forgot to say anything about Max or Kat.

"You don't seem to understand," Chang said. He was deep into the middle of the pit now. Max was totally exposed. He couldn't do anything except hope that Kat would sneak up behind the triad boss and surprise him. "You can't stop this any more than the emperors could stop the Heaven and Earth Association. I'm going to rebuild my power base in Shanghai. I'm going to get back everything you took away from me!"

Max was paying no attention to rambling. He was observing a point over Chang's left shoulder. "Doesn't look like it," he said, flip.

"Appearances are deceiving," Chang sneered. "Isn't that what you say in the West?"

"Yes," Daniel said directly behind him. Chang started and spun around. Daniel pressed the energy rifle against Chang's chest. "Drop it," Daniel ordered.

The triad boss let the engineering professor disarm him. Daniel handed Chang's weapon to Max, who crushed it. "Thanks, Daniel," Max said.

"Thank you," Daniel replied. They marched Chang back to the edge of the pit, then forced him to climb up to the walkway.

Kat came up next to Max. Her two guards were both lying unconscious. "Yo," she said. She held out her taped wrists. "Little help?"

"Sure." He ripped the tape off. He noticed her split lip and the bruise around it. Some of his triumphant feeling disappeared. "You okay?"

Kat flexed her wrists, then hauled back and socked Chang. He collapsed. "Just peachy," she said.

Berto said over the biolink, "The Xi'an cops are on their way, hermano - better get out of there fast."

Max turned to Daniel, who had been joined by Lidan. She was holding a spool of thin blue nylon rope. She was kneeling next to Chang and getting ready to tie his arms behind his back. "You've got this?" Max asked Daniel. "The cops are almost here anyway."

Daniel looked at his wife and smiled. Then he looked at Max. He seemed pleasantly surprised: "I think so, yeah."

"Then we were never here," Max said. He winked at Daniel. Kat and Lidan exchanged a friendly wave. Then the two spies ran out of Vault One.

They jumped into Hawk and took off into the night. They were long gone when the Xi'an police arrived.

So was Dragonelle.

---  
DEL ORO BAY, CALIFORNIA  
---

"Job well done," Jeff announced to his three agents. They were back in the briefing room. Only Kat looked worse for wear; her injuries were already healing. "I've received word that the Chinese government in Beijing fully supports Daniel and Lidan's version of events, however unbelievable it might be."

"Two unarmed civilians taking down ten vicious gangsters? What's hard to believe about that?" Max joked.

Jeff flashed a brief smile. Then he continued. "Drs. Chen and Wu are being hailed as heroes of the People's Republic, Chang is in prison for a _very_ long time, and no priceless artifacts were destroyed. As I said - a job well done."

"There's a rumor," Berto said reluctantly. "It's circulating on the Internet - in some pretty reputable circles. A few statues are missing from a different part of the museum."

Jeff frowned. "I've heard as much myself. Nothing conclusive either way. Beijing is understandably keeping things to itself right now."

"Right. But what was that Heaven and Earth Association Chang was talking about?" Max asked. It had been important to Chang. That made it worth following up.

"That," Jeff said, "I do know. It was the original triad."

No one was really shocked. Nor did they find it an amazing coincidence.

"First emperor, first triad... last time we'll ever see the Cyberdragons," Kat said. She would've smiled if she hadn't been concerned about the stitches in her lip. "_Or_ my blue hair."

The three men looked surprised and vaguely amused.

She shrugged. "I'm over it."

Max let out an exaggerated breath. "Whew! Now that we know I get to live - what's on the schedule for today?"

"I'm glad you asked," Jeff said. He put a new display up on the monitor.

---  
KIEV, UKRAINE  
---

"I want it in two months," Dragonelle said.

The Russian scratched his grizzled chin. Then he nodded. "It will be difficult - such a powerful weapon - but it can be done. Yes. Two months."

"Good," she said. She set the silver metal briefcase on the worktable and clicked the latches open. Inside were stacks of money. American dollars, euros, yen. The money was neatly bundled together with thick rubber bands, into little bricks. "The other half on delivery."

The Russian grinned. He was greedy. Greedy enough to sell Soviet doomsday weapons to a known terrorist funding herself with money from black market artifacts. "Of course, yes, of course."

Dragonelle slammed the briefcase shut. He yelped in alarm. "One more thing," she said. "It has to look like this."

She handed him the telescope's blueprints.

"I don't know - maybe -" he stammered. Now he was scared, but he still wanted his money. "With more time - It's a lot to modify -"

"Two months," she said. NASA launched the Space Cruiser in three, and she needed to be in place early for the project to succeed.

Heaven and Earth was _her_ project, not that idiot Chang's. _Her _master plan. It was brilliant. The "Earth" portion of the operation was done: she had her money, even more than she'd needed. Now it was time for the "Heaven" part. And after that -

What happened after that would be John Dread's concern, not hers.

"No negotiating," she said. She narrowed her eyes. "Are we clear?"

He gulped. "Two months. The laser will be ready in two months."

"I'm sure it will," Dragonelle said. She smiled.

---  
END  
---

**BIBLIOGRAPHY**

(Yes, a bibliography. That's how much time I put into this fic.)

There is no substitute for research, especially for someone writing about places she's never seen, and the following resources were invaluable:

1. Lonely Planet, _Shanghai City Guide_, 2004 ed.

2. The Rough Guide, _China_, 2000 ed.  
(Most of the Chinese words and phrases I used came from these two books.)

3. The Terracotta Army of Emperor Qin Shi Huang by Yuan Zhongyi and Luo Zhongmin  
(Absolutely the best book I found on the subject, in terms of detail, but a bit on the dry side. It's written in Chinese and English.)

4. The Discovery Channel program _The Man Who Created China_ (2006)  
(This premiered as I was halfway through the fic and thinking, "If only I could see a documentary on the necropolis...!")

5. The Discovery Channel website

6. The Terracotta Army Museum (Bingma Yong) website

Last note:

Max came up with the plan, but Kat got to pick the aliases. You can figure this out by two clues. One: Kat watches _The Sand Pebbles_ at the hotel. Two: She calls her plan to get away from Chang "her Great Escape". _The Sand Pebbles_ (which starts in Shanghai) and _The Great Escape_ star Steve McQueen as sailor Jake Holman and as Capt. Hilts, respectively.


End file.
